Some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in English and Bosnian

The paper deals with metonymies having body parts as source domains in English and Bosnian. According to Cognitive Linguistics standpoint, human cognition is based on bodily functioning. Therefore, we started from the hypothesis that most body part metonymies are very similar across languages and cu...

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Main Authors: Imamović Adisa, Ibrišimović Anela Mulahmetović
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2015-10-01
Series:ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics)
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/exell-2016-0009
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author Imamović Adisa
Ibrišimović Anela Mulahmetović
author_facet Imamović Adisa
Ibrišimović Anela Mulahmetović
author_sort Imamović Adisa
collection DOAJ
description The paper deals with metonymies having body parts as source domains in English and Bosnian. According to Cognitive Linguistics standpoint, human cognition is based on bodily functioning. Therefore, we started from the hypothesis that most body part metonymies are very similar across languages and cultures, and share similar properties. The aim of the paper was threefold: first, to examine whether metonymies with body parts as source domains have common grammatical and conceptual properties in English, secondly to examine whether they share the same properties in Bosnian, and thirdly to compare the two languages in this respect. We analysed body part metonymies in terms of some grammatical properties such as the use of singular and plural, specific and generic reference, grammatical recategorisation from count to mass nouns, noun-to-verb conversion, and some conceptual properties such as source-in-target vs. target-in-source metonymies, metonymic chains and combination of metaphor and metonymy. Many common features were found both within the respective languages under consideration and in cross-linguistic analysis. The minor differences found in contrasting the data from the two languages are mainly the result of differences in grammatical systems.
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spelling doaj-art-d48fbdb23c7041afa3cfdc56749fa7e02025-01-31T08:34:31ZengSciendoExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics)2303-48582015-10-0131263910.1515/exell-2016-0009exell-2016-0009Some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in English and BosnianImamović Adisa0Ibrišimović Anela Mulahmetović1University of TuzlaUniversity of TuzlaThe paper deals with metonymies having body parts as source domains in English and Bosnian. According to Cognitive Linguistics standpoint, human cognition is based on bodily functioning. Therefore, we started from the hypothesis that most body part metonymies are very similar across languages and cultures, and share similar properties. The aim of the paper was threefold: first, to examine whether metonymies with body parts as source domains have common grammatical and conceptual properties in English, secondly to examine whether they share the same properties in Bosnian, and thirdly to compare the two languages in this respect. We analysed body part metonymies in terms of some grammatical properties such as the use of singular and plural, specific and generic reference, grammatical recategorisation from count to mass nouns, noun-to-verb conversion, and some conceptual properties such as source-in-target vs. target-in-source metonymies, metonymic chains and combination of metaphor and metonymy. Many common features were found both within the respective languages under consideration and in cross-linguistic analysis. The minor differences found in contrasting the data from the two languages are mainly the result of differences in grammatical systems.https://doi.org/10.1515/exell-2016-0009cognitive linguisticsmetonymymetonymic chainsbody partsidiomsrecategorisationconversion
spellingShingle Imamović Adisa
Ibrišimović Anela Mulahmetović
Some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in English and Bosnian
ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics)
cognitive linguistics
metonymy
metonymic chains
body parts
idioms
recategorisation
conversion
title Some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in English and Bosnian
title_full Some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in English and Bosnian
title_fullStr Some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in English and Bosnian
title_full_unstemmed Some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in English and Bosnian
title_short Some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in English and Bosnian
title_sort some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in english and bosnian
topic cognitive linguistics
metonymy
metonymic chains
body parts
idioms
recategorisation
conversion
url https://doi.org/10.1515/exell-2016-0009
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